Exploring Possible Public Issues for Course Writing Projects

I. Generating Ideas for Possible Public Issues
Here are some ideas if you’re having a difficult time choosing an issue:

• Scan local, national, online newspapers: what are the pressing issues right now? What are people writing about? Slate Magazine, the Dominion Post, the Charleston Gazette, or the Pittsburgh Post Gazette might be especially helpful.
• Read the Daily Athenaeum: what is going on on campus that has students, faculty, or the administration talking?
• Check out catalogs of liberal activist bloggers or conservative activist bloggers: what issues are people blogging about?
• Talk to your friends, family members: what concerns does your peer group have? what concerns does your family have?
• Think about your major: what issues might you confront as you pursue your major/career?
• Consider your personal interests (biking, greek life, entertainment, cooking, children, or on-line gaming, to name just a few). What discussions/issues emerge as you think about these interests?

Give yourself some time to really think through and about these questions, so that you choose an issue that really excites you.

II. Thoughts & Suggestions on Issue Selection

The issue you choose to address over the course of this semester is key to your success in this course and to your success as a public writer-citizen. Therefore, you want to keep these ideas in mind as you choose your issue:

• Your issue should be debatable. Your job is to inform an audience about an issue they do not know about and/or persuade that audience to take action concerning this issue. Therefore, you want to choose an issue that people need to be informed about and/or that people might change their minds about.
• Possible topic: President Obama’s nationwide volunteer program  
• Impossible topic: The earth is round.

• Your issue should be contained. You want to choose an issue you can grasp over the course of the semester. Therefore, writing about the government’s economy would be a difficult one to address. Writing about WVU’s fiscal responsibility, undergraduate student debt, or the federal government’s student loan policy would be more tenable. Thinking local is good idea.

• Your issue must have an interested and possibly local audience.  The best student projects are those that engage the local community. In making this choice of audience, students can gain a thick sense of their audience and their concerns.

• Your issue must be important to you. Remember that you will be writing about this issue all semester long. Be sure to choose one that interests and excites you. Those are the issues that will inspire effective writing, thinking, and civic engagement.